The present disclosure is related to the design and realization of structures such as buildings, and more specifically to systems and methods for interfacing with the structure design and development process by way of a sketch, model or similar depiction.
Traditionally, the process of designing and building a structure begins with an architect or other party sketching conceptual ideas for the structure. Most commonly, an architect's initial sketches are done in pen or pencil, usually starting with a blank sheet of paper, allowing conceptual ideas to flow quickly and freely. The sketches may go through a number of iterations until the design is sufficiently refined that the parties feel it is ready for more formal rendering. A draftsman (or a team of draftsmen) then turns the sketches into drafts of architectural plans. For larger, more complex structures, the process branches at this point such that different professionals develop different aspects of the plans, such as foundation, superstructure, curtain walls, heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC), interior design, and so forth.
While in one sense the term “sketch” implies a degree of informality and generalization, for a client to appreciate the design and for a draftsman to accurately capture the architect's intent in architectural plans, the sketches must be reasonably detailed and accurate. Yet, they must be fluid enough that design ideas can still be introduced (or removed) quickly and easily. The sketches are intended to both display and elicit ideas. For this reason, to reach a reasonable degree of completeness, sketches themselves may be the subject of numerous iterations, refinements, and redrawing. This sketch-and-refine process takes place before numerous practical considerations can be factored into the design, such as cost, structural and site limitations, and so forth.
In some cases, the design of a structure is intended to be unique and specific to a client. The draftsman's role in such cases is to create working drawings (e.g., blueprints or building plans) that capture the design intent evidenced in the architect's sketches. In other cases, the design starts with or references an existing structure's design or style. In these cases, the architect's sketches, and ultimately the draftsman's working drawings attempt to integrate the architect's conceptual ideas with the styles represented in the existing structure.
In certain projects, a model building process may follow the sketch process. The model may still be conceptual, and provides a three-dimensional view of a proposed structure. Models, like sketches are intended to both illustrate and elicit design ideas. Therefore, models may be constructed such that they can be easily reconfigured to explore design ideas.
This sketch (and model) refinement process is well established and historically has been a relatively effective practice. However, a number of modern developments challenge the effectiveness of such practices. For example, there is ever-increasing pressure to reduce the time required to produce a complete building design. The less time required to design, the lower the cost of the design process and the quicker the structure can move to the building stage.
Furthermore, there is an increasing use of alternatives to paper and pen to do sketching. Computer-based design using tools such as Google Sketch-Up, AutoDesk AutoCAD, and the like provide many advantages, such as repeatability, speed, visualization, and so on, over hand drawing for certain types of designs. Relatively low-cost three-dimensional printers are now available, permitting rapid and relatively inexpensive model building. Systems are also emerging that permit assembling building designs from a palette of building blocks, as well as systems that make or highlight design choices for a user based on rules governing attributes of the structure from an examination of a computer-based drawing of the structure.
Still further, use of photographs, video, and other non-hand drawn sources of design inspiration are increasingly common. Historically, there has been no better way to capture design inspirations found in sketches, models, photos, video, event entire completed structures, than to attempt to copy them, which is very dependent on the artistic ability of the architect or designer, with results varying accordingly.
In addition, perspective illustrations have been used to show a proposed structure in place on its site. Capable architects and designers can produce such illustrations that look quite realistic. However, there has historically been no simple and visually compelling way to actually superimpose a sketch (or other rendering) in place and on its site.
While computer drafting is quickly becoming the norm, the method of modifying drawings remains traditional. The drawings are marked up on a printed copy thereof, and then a skilled professional interprets those markups and modifies the computer-based drawings accordingly.
In summary, systems are not yet available which effectively permit rapid and simple initiation of a structure design from sketches. Merely scanning a sketch into a computer is not sufficient, as there is a lack of known machine capability to interpret the sketch and create a working plan therefrom. Thus, sketches are still manually transformed into working drawings. The same holds true for physical models of structures. Point clouds can be determined for such models, but known systems are not able to adequately interpret the data, make myriad decisions about a structure's workings from that data, and render a complete design for the structure. Instead, the sketches and models serve merely as a template for the more complete, manual design development and refinement process performed by additional professionals. And, once the structure design and development produces a working structure design, existing systems and practices do not facilitate detailed modifications directly from a physical markup of the working structure design (e.g., hand-drawn changes to printed plans).